On what they expected from the Suns:

“Even from their practice games, they’ve definitely had a shift and they have a lot of talent.

“We were pretty wary of what they could bring, but I was proud of how our players started – that set us up for the rest of the game.”

On how the game played out:

“We were down in contest and clearance, which is something that we pride ourselves on. I think our backs set up really well behind the ball, which gave us some good looks.

“That’s probably why we were then able to spend some time in forward half.

“The best part was that we turned the contest and clearances around after quarter-time. We were pretty happy with where we were at at half-time – we probably dropped away a little bit in the second quarter – but I’m just really happy for the players.

“It’s a long off-season – we spoke about that with the players post-game. I think it was 286 days since we last played for points, so winning Round 1 actually means something when you have such a big off-season.

“It was really good validation for what they’ve done in the off-season and also across the pre-season.”

On Brit Gutknecht and Mua Laloifi:

“I thought all our backs were really good, particularly those two.

“It was quite slippery conditions out there, so the cleaner players stood out.

“Mua and Brit were definitely two of those.”

On Jess Fitzgerald’s role:

“It doesn’t matter where we put her – she plays really well.

“She gives us a good point of difference in the midfield with her outside burst, but we can also use that from half-back. She’s so good with ball in hand and distributes the ball really well.

“She’ll spend a bit of time between both (midfield and half-back) and we think it adds a really good look across both those lines.”

On having other players step up:

“That’s a sign of our program building as a squad. It’s a small list size of 30, so you do need that depth.

“Ellie (Blackburn) has had to shoulder that load for so long, so it’s nice now to have other players around to complement her.

“That’s something we’ve worked on the last couple of years. I think that we do have some depth now rolling through which allows players like Fitzy (Jess Fitzgerald) to be able to play back, and Pritchy (Isabelle Pritchard) and Blackers (Ellie Blackburn) to be able to spend some time forward. It’s nice.

On Isabelle Pritchard’s first match as co-captain:

“She’s always led by action. I think that’s where her and De really complement each other.

“I think that’s why we went for co-captaincy – we felt there was a really good balance.

“For Pritchy, it’s like she’s been leading without an official title anyway. She did a good job tonight.”

On Heidi Woodley’s pressure:

“We pride ourselves on the power and speed of our high half-forwards in Heidi and Griggy (Elaine Grigg).

“That acts as our first line of defence and is something that the rest of the group feeds off.

“They set the tone down there defensively, and that first half allowed us to play more in our forward half.”

On Amaia Wain’s debut:

“Her background is in high jumping…she went to the Nationals. What she’s done is not just jump, but her ability to follow up is really crucial for around the grounds.

“She debuted strongly tonight.”

On Round 2 against Richmond:

“We think that we can match up really well from a contest perspective with our inside mids, but what we’ve been able to do now is add layers around that.

“We think that inside to outside, we’re more equipped as well to deal with the 17 other sides, which is something we’ve been working on.”